Saturday Night Live‘s Weekend Update reacted to the planned presidential debates between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, as well as an especially viral exchange in the House of Representatives this week involving Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
For a preview of the CNN debate in late June and the second on ABC in September, co-anchor Colin Jost suggested that viewers “take a bottle of Ambien and Adderall at the same time.”
Jost also mocked each candidate for their social media posts agreeing to the debate, as Biden addressed Trump with “Make my day, pal,” and Trump responded with, “Let’s get ready to rumble!”
“Two phrases that are guaranteed to lock up the youth vote,” Jost quipped.
Michael Che, reacting to how Trump called on each candidate to be required to stand, said dishearteningly: “So that’s that status of our presidency: Standing is a feat of strength. I think we could learn a lot more watching them both try to get out of a beanbag chair.”
Che then riffed on the spat between Greene and Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) on Thursday that began after the Georgia Republican commented on her colleague’s appearance. Crockett shot back by asking Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY), “If someone on this committee then starts talking about somebody’s bleach blonde, bad built, butch body, that would not be engaging in personalities, correct?”
“I feel like we’re watching the waffle House of Representatives,” Che joked.
Weekend Update also included a jab at Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who posted a picture of himself outside Trump’s trial in New York with the caption, “Standing back and standing by”–a clear reference to Trump’s embrace of the Proud Boys.
“Gaetz used that same caption in a picture of himself outside a quinceañera,” Che joked of the man who is the subject of a House Ethics Committee probe into whether he paid for sex with an underage teen, and who previously avoided being charged for sex trafficking. Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing.
Jost and Che, given that Saturday’s episode was the season 49 finale, closed out the segment by trading jokes, as is customary.
Subjects included Duke graduates walking out of Jerry Seinfeld’s commencement address, the Pope, and Scarlett Johansson, Jost’s wife.
Michaela Coel in ‘The Christophers.’Claudette Barius/NEON
